Paper short abstract:

I argue that for a group of Latinx queer individuals in Houston, the creation of queer-kinship relationships and spaces of sociability has aided them to perform their gender, sexuality, ethnicity, vis-a-vis the development of a support network that serves as a collective enterprise of survival.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I argue that for a group of Latinx queer individuals in Houston, the creation of queer-kinship relationships and spaces of sociability has aided them to perform their gender and sexuality, ethnic identities vis-a vis de development of a support network that sometimes serves as a collective enterprise of survival. In these queer spaces they can freely perform their queerness and their Latinidad at the same time and develop a particular kind of queerness that opposes to any static view of identity. The focus of my presentation is based on my ethnographic work with eleven Latinx individuals in Houston, who identified as the “LaRue Legacy”. To the heteronormative gaze, this is a group of friends who do drag performances; however, I argue that this group relate to each other as a family, developing queer kinship connections, using the nomenclature used within a family such as: mother, grandmother, sister, among others. In addition, they also support each other with the same love and feelings that a traditional family would do. In addition, I study the way in which Mexican and U.S. conceptions of gender and sexuality have influenced the group I study creating a hybrid discourse of queerness that fused hegemonic and subaltern forces. I argue that the gender practices of my collaborators challenge notions of traditional norms of gender, sexuality and nationality. In my study I am developing an ethno-gender- ethnographic approach based on theories of intersecionalities, gender, and queer studies.